I Saw a King
When an exiled Ethiopian prince is imprisoned at his grand family home, a young daydreamer awakens to the reality of fascist Italy.
In 1936, following Benito Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, fascist fervour has gripped Italy. For young Emilio, however, living in a small seaside town outside Naples with his eccentric artist mother and domineering father (Edoardo Pesce, Dogman, MIFF 2018), the town’s mayor, politics couldn’t be further away. So when deposed Ethiopian prince Abraham Imirrù is suddenly imprisoned in the family’s aviary, the boy imagines that this prisoner of war is the fictional Italian pirate Sandokan, and the pair strike up a friendship. Slowly, Emilio begins to understand the horror, and the absurdity, of what’s happening in his country.
A colourful coming-of-age comedy that carries stylistic echoes of Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, I Saw a King is similarly anchored in its young protagonist’s perspective, embellishing its stranger-than-fiction true story with outsized characters, confusion of fantasy and reality, and sociopolitical farce. Award-winning director Giorgia Farina tells this tale as a feel-good fable that feels less good as it goes, chronicling loss of innocence of a child and an entire nation alike.
“Farina catapults the viewer into a world dominated by the distortions of fascism, but where it is still possible to find corners of wonder thanks to the little protagonist’s pure gaze.” – Movie Player